The Michael Hughes Bridge, the first major infrastructural project to be started in Sligo in decades, is officially opened to the motoring public on December 9, 1988.

Often referred to locally as “The New Bridge,” construction of the £2.55 million four lane bridge over the River Garavogue estuary is started in July 1987, with the aim of relieving Sligo of the chaotic traffic congestion which has been crippling the town’s streets for several decades. The project starts taking shape after a study of the traffic in Sligo is carried out in 1969 and updated in 1975 by consultants DeLaw, Chadwick & O’h Eocha.

The location of the Michael Hughes Bridge is from the embankment at Markievicz Road, adjacent to the location of the old Municipal Swimming Pool, which has itself been demolished in recent years to make way for a small recreation area, to the old Harbour Office on Custom House Quay.

The Queens Store, an old warehouse, is demolished to make way for a new section of road leading from the bridge up as far as Union Street, beside where TD Howley’s public house stands. Major resurfacing works are carried out by Sligo Borough Council, then known as Sligo Corporation, on Adelaide Street and on Union Street prior to the opening of the bridge.

The contractors for the construction of the Michael Hughes Bridge are Ascon Ltd., Ireland‘s largest civil engineering contractor based in Kill, County Kildare.

The Michael Hughes Bridge is named after the late Councillor Michael Hughes who spearheaded the campaign to have a new road bridge built across the River Garavogue in the 1940s. It is opened by Mayor Matt Lyons, which he describes as being “the most historic civic occasion in Sligo for decades.”

Two thousand people turn out to see the opening of the long-awaited piece of infrastructure, which includes many schoolchildren, as all of the schools in Sligo are closed for the day. Mayor Lyons unveils a plaque to mark the opening of the bridge, which is followed by a multi-denominational blessing ceremony and a parade across the bridge.

A ship anchored nearby blasts its siren as the bridge, the first new bridge in Sligo since 1852, is officially declared open.

(From: The Michael Hughes Bridge, The Sligo Town Website, http://www.sligotown.net)